2021-22 Shocker Men XC and Track & Field

[SubGod22]

$14.00 for a three day pass is almost free.

I'm going to spend more than that watching 14U softball this weekend.

[1972Shocker]

Weather looking pretty decent for a track meet this time of year:

Friday
83°/61°
Partly Cloudy
Chance of Rain 19%
NE 10 mph

Saturday
88°/63°
Mostly Sunny
Chance of Rain 24%
ESE 11 mph

Sunday
82°/60°
Partly Cloudy
Chance of Rain 24%
ENE 11 mph

Best chance of precipitation is overnight Saturday. Hopefully, not too humid.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers to Host AAC Outdoor Championships

GoShockers.com Pre-Meet Notes (including comments from the WSU Coaching Staff) and Championship Meet links.

https://goshockers.com/news/2022/5/12/track-and-field-shockers-to-host-aac-outdoor-championships.aspx

"We feel like we have a really nice men's team, and the guys are excited to compete for a high team finish," head coach Steve Rainbolt said. "Houston is always an incredible opponent and certainly will be the favorite in this track meet. We will go in with an underdog mentality and a chip on our shoulder ready to compete with a strong spirit to battle as hard as we can to try to win a team title."

[1972Shocker]

RH: Shocker Decathletes Expect To Continue Success

https://goshockers.com/news/2022/5/12/the-roundhouse-rh-aac-outdoor-championships-begin-friday.aspx

Wichita State coaches recognized Adria Navajon's talent when they entered him in the heptathlon at the American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in February.

However, coach Steve Rainbolt admits, they could not know how Navajon would handle the two-day event. Navajon had not completed a heptathlon in his year-plus at Wichita State.

"We knew he was good," Rainbolt said. "We had not seen him make his way through a multi-event competition. Putting it together is a challenge. We stacked it on that guy, and he handled it unbelievably."

It worked in February, when Navajon scored 5,616 points to win the conference title, and Rainbolt is confident it can work again. Navajon, a redshirt freshman from Barcelona, Spain, will compete in his first decathlon this spring in the conference outdoor championships that begin Friday at Cessna Stadium.

Coaches limited Navajon this spring to keep him healthy. A balky hamstring bothered him in the indoor season. He is recovering from a bruised heel more recently and spent the spring in individual events to prepare for the decathlon.

Despite his inexperience, Rainbolt expects Navajon to help the Shockers in the decathlon, the 110-meter hurdles and the long jump. In the decathlon, he joins a strong group that will be expected to perform for the Shockers to challenge six-time men's champion Houston. Wichita State finished as runner-up the past two outdoor meets.

Tanner Brown, who finished second in the conference heptathlon with 5,512 points in February, enters the outdoor meet ranked first in the decathlon with 7,178 points. Kolby Caster (6,257) is fourth. Cincinnati's Cannon Riddle, the 2021 champion, enters weekend ranked second with 6,656 points.

Wichita State's tradition in the multi-events helped bring Navajon from Spain. The presence of several Spaniards on the roster in recent years also helped.

"They know how to train the multis," Navajon said. "Since I started at 8 years old, doing track, I was going there, touching every single event. When I was 15, a new coach came to my track club in Spain, and she told me 'You could be really good as a multi.'"

He also came to the United States to face top competition.

This weekend, his goal is to help the Shockers win the conference title and score around the 7,500 points likely needed to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.

"That's a big score, but I think that I'm ready," he said.

Rainbolt, who has coached five men's NCAA All-Americans and two women's NCAA All-Americans in the multi-events, sees high-level traits in Navajon. He is open to coaching and welcomes challenges against top competition. In Europe, track athletes train more and compete less than their American counterparts, which prepares him for jumping into the decathlon this weekend.

---

This article focuses on freshman Adria Navajon and for good reason. But don't count at redshirt junior Tanner Brown. Tanner, from Russell, Kansas, hasn't come nearly as far away to compete at Wichita, State but I think he is capable of being right there with his freshman teammate. It may come down to the final event, the 1500m run which is fricking killer as the last of 10 events over 2 days.

[1972Shocker]

Decathlon - Day 1

100m Dash - Good start for Adria Navajon has he wins the race in 10.84 (897 points) seconds edging Cannon Riddle of Cincinnati who clocked an 10.88 (888 points). However, Tanner Brown who has run a 10.37 100m time this year could only manage of time of 11.95 (661 points). That might indicate an injury either coming in or during the race.

Long Jump - Cincinnati athletes took the top 3 spots with Adria Navajon 4th. Adria jumped 22-1.5 (753 points) but that is well short of his best. Cannon Riddle of Cincy leads after 2 events with 1,695 points and Adris is second at 1,650. Cincy athletes also sit in 3rd and 4th. Perhaps more importantly for the Shocks they appear to have two athletes injured as Tanner Brown who has been over 24' this year only managed to jump 17-12 and Hudson Bailey who has jumped over 21' this year only managed to jump 13-6. My guess is those 2 guys are done. Since the Shocker were probably hoping to battle Cincinnati for a 2nd place team finish this early development may all but dash those hopes. As Cincy will get points they were not expecting and the Shocks will lose points they were expecting.

Shot Put - Did not go well for Adria. He finished last of the 10 competitors and falls to 4th place overall. Tanner and Hudson still hanging in there and were not too bad in this event but sit at the bottom of the overall standings.

Long Jump - 2 of the Cincy guys and 2 Shockers, Adria and Tanner all cleared 6-3.5 in the high jump worth 731 points.

400m Dash - Cincy's Cannon Riddle wins in 50.44 (794 points) with the Shocks Adria Navajon close behind at 50.49 (792 points). Cincy's Dominique Hall and the Shockers' Tanner Brown and Hudson Bailey did not finish the race. If they do I guess Cincy's Hall will get the 1 point for 8th place.

After Day 1 the overall scores are:
1. Cannon Riddle - Cincinnati 3,824
2. Adria Navajon - Wichita State 3,660
3. Damien Berthenet - Cincinnati 3,618
4. Chonnor Ludolph - Wichita State 3,516
5. Kolby Caster - Wichita State 3,153
6. Morgan Conner - Wichita State 2,775
7. Starrett Vestper - East Carolina - 2,639
8. Dominique Hall - Cincinnati - 2,520
9. Tanner Brown - Wichita State - 2,464
10. Hudson Bailey - Wichita State - 1,527

Tomorrow's events are the 110m hurdles, the discus, the pole vault, the javelin and the 1500m run. Adria is pretty strong in the 110m hurdles and the pole vault but pretty week in the discus and javelin (as he was today in the shot put). i have no idea what he might do in the 1500m run. He said coming in he hoped to score 7500 points. i think he will be hard pressed to break 7000.

Adria trails Cannon Riddle by 164 points. 117 points of that advantage came in the shot put. I don't think it is likely the Shocker freshman will make up that deficit. But we'll see what happens.

[1972Shocker]

Michael Bryan takes care of his expectations by winning the hammer throw slinging that 16 pound ball and chain 227-1.

Robert Watson of Memphis, who was second with a throw of 216-10 had this to say about Micheal:

"Michael is one of the smaller guys in the circle, but he's throwing further than everyone because his technique is better," Watson said. "He's got a great rhythm and counter. You've got to sit against (the ball) and he does that really well."

[shoxlax]

Michael Bryan takes care of his expectations by winning the hammer throw slinging that 16 pound ball and chain 227-1.

Awesome!

Somewhere there is a nagging wife joke to be had in your comments.

[WuDrWu]

Tanner took a bad spill in the high jump. His knee gave out as he went to set his plant foot.

Rough decathlon day, to say the least.

[1972Shocker]

Tanner took a bad spill in the high jump. His knee gave out as he went to set his plant foot.

Rough decathlon day, to say the least.

I wonder if he wasn't already hurting. HIs performances in the first 2 events, the 100m and the long jump were well off of his best marks of the season. His shot put wasn't terrible but it was 6 feet short of his best mark. He just did not seem to have it today.

Track and field seems to be a sport with a lot of injuries. Of course, you have rosters with a lot of athletes. And the multi-events just magnify the chances of injury.

[1972Shocker]

Apparently, no 1500 men's prelims tonight. There are 14 runners listed on the start list. Apparently, either 2 have withdrawn or they decided to let all 14 run in the finals and skip a preliminary race just to eliminate 2 runners.

Joakim Generoux has qualified in the 200m dash. Jaleel Montgomery just missed qualifying for the 8-man final by 0.12 second.

Yuben Goncalves qualifies for the 400m hurdles for the Shocks.

[1972Shocker]

Good night for the Shockers on the javelin runway. Shockers finish 1 (Taran Taylor), 3 (Davis Dubbert), 4 (Cauy Lindsey), and 5 (Chandler Stiawalt) racking up 25 teams points.

Taran had his best throw of the season at 242-6 which should put him in the top 15 in the country. That throw is just short of his pre-injury (elbow) personal best of 243-8 which is the 2nd best throw in Shocker history.

[1972Shocker]

Junior Ben Flowers finished 4th in the 10k followed close by freshman teammate Trey Rios from Maize in 4th place giving the Shocks 9 points. A nice result in this race. Tulsa finished 1-2-3-7-8 as they put just about all of their track scholarships money into their distance program.

[1972Shocker]

Decathlon - Day 2

110m Hurdles - A good event for Adria and he comes through with the top time of 14.41, good for 922 points. Adria pulls into 2nd place trailing Cannon Riddle by 33 points.

Discus - Not a strong event for Adria (and most decathletes). Hopefully, he can have a good day for him and his competitors a little bit of an off day. Adria finished 8th with a throw of 102-0 good for only 486 points. Cincy's Damien Berthenet 121-8 good for 606 points and has moved into 2nd, 60 points behind his teammate, Cannon Riddle, who finished 4th with a throw of 109-11 for 534 points. Adria is in 3rd place, 81 points behind leader Riddle.

Pole Vault - Adria will probably need a very strong vault to have a chance to win overall. His personal best is 4.63m/15-2.25 which is pretty strong for a decathlete. I had to laugh a little bit. The starting height was set at 7-0.5. The high jumpers will probably clear that. 2 guys missed all 3 attempts and 2 guys made it. Looks like the top 5 guys are going to open at around 14 feet. I guess that says something for how tough this event is for non-specialists. Adria does win the pole vault but not buy a huge margin over the 2 Cincy guys. Going into the final 2 events is very tight with the top 3 guys. Cannon Riddle leads with 5,837 points, Adria is at 5,814 and Damon Berthenet is at 5,805. Unfortunately, I don't thing the final two events are especially strong events for Adria

Javelin - Adria with decent throw of 155-9, but Berthenet throw 169-9. and Riddle throws 138-6.

1500m Run - This will determine the winner. After 9 events Cincy's Damon Berthenet leads with 6,419, the Shocker freshman Adria Navajon is a 54 points back at 6,365, and Cincy's Cannon Riddle is 3rd at 6,311. I have no idea how strong Adria is in this event. IIRC, the 1,000m run to close out his heptathlon win at the AAC Indoor Championships was a real challenge for him but he fought through it pretty well.

Adria proves to be the real deal as he wins the 1500m race in 4:35.97. Cannon Riddle was 2nd in 4:47.60 and Damon Berthenet was 4th in 4:57.61. After adding the scores up the top 3 finishers are:

1. Adria Navajon - Wichita State 7,071
2. Damon Berthenet - Cincinnati 6.993
3. Cannon Riddle - Cincinnati 6,944

Shockers also captured 4th, 5th and 7th place for a team total of 19 points. The Shocks were probably hoping for around 25 points in this event but the injury to Tanner Brown scuttled those hopes.

Congratulations to Adria Navajon as he adds the AAC Decathlon Championship to his AAC Indoor Heptathlon Championship and he is in his first year. Adria's score is not quite yet Top 10 in Shocker history but he should get there next year and who know what his upside is especially if he improves greatly in his weaker events, the shot put, discuss and javelin. Plus he was competing this year with a bruised heel that did bother him quite a bit.

[1972Shocker]

In the qualifying preliminary races today to qualify for Sunday's finals:

Decathlon champ Adria Navajon qualified 8th for the 8-man 110m hurle final.

Adam Moore, Josh Cable and Riley Vandaveer will move on to the 8-man 800m final.

JD Prinsloo makes it into the final 8 of the 400m dash.

Jaleel Montgomery qualifies for the 8th and final spot in the 100m finals.

[1972Shocker]

In event finals on Saturday:
.
The Shocks pick up 8 points in the long jump with Yuben Concalves (4th), Morgan Conner (7th) and Dowdy Elazarig (8) scoring.

The Shocks were shut out in the shot put with Dae'Trell Gordon finishing just outside the scoring in 9th place.

The Shocks got a little bit of a surprise in the 3000m steeplechase with Clayton Duchatschek cruising to a win with teammate Britte Magnuson finishing 3rd for a total of 16 points. This definitely will help ease the paid of losing Tanner Brown to injury in the decathlon.